Opposites Attract
by panicatthetumblr
Summary: Dan and Phil wake up the morning after a thunderstorm and find they have some strange abilities. The internet doesn't take it well and they go into hiding, with the help of an underground society they learn to control their powers. But not everything is as it seems. Rated T, for swearing (we all know how Dan is), some mild violence, tiny bit of Phan
1. A Normal Day?

**I have to put a disclaimer but I'm not sure how to word it… Um here goes nothing. *Ahem* "I don't own Dan and Phil." Yup, I hope that was fairly obvious.**

 **Also spoilers for the 28th episode of Sims4, I'm hoping that everyone has seen it already (It has been like two months). This is rated T, for some minor romance and some swearing (We all know how Dan is)! You have been warned!**

 **In this story, Dan and Phil have just returned from TATINOF USA, but I made it winter for plot purposes... You'll see why a little bit later ;)**

 **Also, one more quick thing before I start, thank you SOOOOO much to my friend Haley (or Amazingladybugisnotonfire on Instgram) this story would not be what it is without your help!**

 **Other than that, I hope you enjoy! ~panicatthetumblr**

The cold London winter air wafted through Dan's bedroom as his eyes fluttered open. He gave a small shiver whilst snuggling deeper into his cocoon of warmth. Yet he lay there for a while trying to muster up the energy to get out of bed.

Light footsteps padding down the hall told him that Phil was awake. Reaching over to his bedside table, he began his morning routine of scrolling through every social media app he belonged to. After reaching the bottom of his feed on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook, Dan decided that it was finally time to face the day. He stuck a hand in his closet and pulled on one of his many monochromatic t-shirts before leaving his room and shuffling down the hallway of his apartment.

Dan reached the kitchen and pulled a clean bowl and spoon from the cupboard. Reaching for the cereal box, he felt it was so much lighter than he had left it the previous morning. Opening the box he found only a measly pile of crumbs at the bottom of the bag.

"PHIIIIIIIILLLL!" Dan called out, his booming voice echoing throughout the apartment. His black haired flat mate appeared at the kitchen door.

"What's up?" Phil asked.

Dan twisted a sarcastic smile onto his face, "Phil, have you been eating my cereal again?"

"Uh…" Phil stammered as his eyes shifted to anyplace except Dan, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Phil, how many times do I have to tell you? Do. Not. Eat. My. Damn. Cereal." Dan emphasized each of hiswords increasingly.

"I'm sorry, Dan, I was just craving it last night for my midnight snack. I'll buy two new boxes of it for you the next time we go out."

Dan looked up into Phil's pleading eyes, never being able to stay mad at him for too long, he sighed, "Okay."

Now that the air had been cleared, Phil made his way over to the pot of coffee to pour himself his second mug of the day. "Do you want some?" He asked his roommate. Dan stayed silent completely engrossed in finding a suitable box of cereal, now that his favorite was gone. "Dan," Phil called out again, this time catching his attention.

"Sorry, what?" Dan said looking up, Phil gestured to the still half full coffee pot in his hand, "Yeah, sure." He said absentmindedly.

"You okay?" Phil asked, his concern for his friend expanding.

"Hmm?" Dan looked up, the haze in his eyes clearing, "I was just thinking, you know who we haven't seen in a while?"

"Who?"

"Dil."

Dil Howlter was the pair's Sims child. But because they had just returned from touring in America for three months, it had been a while since they had interacted with their son. Besides there had been a lot of requests from their fan's to make a new Sim4 video soon anyway. Phil's facial expression, matching Dan's, stretched into a slow devilish smile which gave away into a light chuckle, "Is that all? I thought that something was seriously wrong with you."

Dan gave a small titter and shaking his head he returned his gaze to the cupboard, finally deciding on what cereal would be a fitting replacement, he poured himself a bowl. "So do you want to film a Sim video today?"

His roommate gave an enthusiastic nod, "I think it's about time that Dil popped the question!" Dan smiled in agreement to Phil's proposal, "Okay, good I'm going to go get changed I'll meet you upstairs in the office." He was already out and down the hall before he could finish his sentence.

Dan rolled his eyes to no one in particular, he was content with the black striped jumper he had chosen earlier that morning. He climbed the stairs to the office, booted up his computer, and set up the camera as he waited in excitement for Phil to return.

* * *

After Phil finished his strange rendition of the wedding march, Dan threw a confused look at the camera and said, "What the heck was that you sang before?"

"I don't even know," Phil stammered.

Before anything else strange could happen Dan gave his usual send off and switched off the camera. "How do you not know what the wedding march is?" He joked.

Phil blushed and didn't reply.

"So, we should get this edited over the weekend and have it out by Monday. Sound good?" Dan asked.

"Yeah, I'll work on the thumbnail too."

The pair retreated downstairs to the lounge, Dan began transferring the video files from his camera to the laptop while Phil switched the TV on and began flipping through the channels. He finally settled on a channel that was showing Finding Nemo. After about ten minutes in, Dan had completely abandoned the task of editing their video and devoted all his attention to the movie playing on the screen.

As the sun sank below the horizon, a roll of low rumbling thunder sounded in the distance. The two thought nothing of it as storms we pretty common in London.

When the movie went to commercial Phil got up and made popcorn for the two of them. But as the night continued on, movie after movie was played, until it was hard for either of them to keep their eyes open and they both drifted off into a relaxing sleep.

* * *

A loud clap of thunder shook the building as Dan and Phil startled awake. Phil jumped as the lights in the apartment began to flicker in and out. "Are you okay?" Dan asked him.

He gave a slight nod, "Yeah I'm… uh… okay. I was just startled." He paused for a moment and took a look at their flickering surroundings, "It's just so eerie."

"Yeah, I know." Dan rubbed his friend's arm reassuringly then stood up to bring to popcorn bowls into the kitchen and began to wash and dry them. As Dan finished drying the second bowl the lights suddenly cut out, leaving them in total darkness. Another flash of lightning and crack of thunder came, illuminating their surroundings if only for a brief moment.

"Dan?" Phil's worried voice sounded from the living room.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He called back and by using the flashlight on his phone he slowly made his way back to the living room. He turned off his cell phone light before entering the lounge as to not completely blind Phil. But as he walked into the room, Dan hadn't realized that Phil had been waiting for him at the doorway.

The pair crashed into each other, startled and breathing heavy they grasped each other's arms. Before either of them could say a word, another strike of lightning bolted down from the sky, this time closer than any of the previous ones, they were almost sure that it had hit the building. But this one seemed different, it could almost be felt in the air.

A shocking wave of electricity carried through the floor and between the two, tingles traveled up their spines and all the way down to their fingertips. The air around the two seemed to crackle like it was supercharged. Phil gulped and nodded. He knew he must have looked awful, but it didn't nearly amount to what he had felt, though, Phil didn't want Dan to be even more worried about him.

"Let me at least walk you to your room." With Phil's arm grasping his shoulders and Dan's wrapped around Phil's waist, he was brought safely back to his room with just a few stumbles and teeters. "Will you be okay?" Dan asked from the doorway as Phil sat down on his bed. He nodded in response.

"Well," Dan said hesitantly, "if you're sure. Just remember I'm right across the hall if you need anything."

Phil giggled, "Yes, Dan, I know that. We've lived here for four years."

Dan laughed at Phil's sarcastic reply and rolled his eyes as he closed the door between them. He began the familiar routine of getting dressed for bed but his mind began drifting to the earlier events of the evening. What happened to them tonight?

 **I'll be updating this once a week! Every Friday!**

 **I just wanted to get the story warmed up and flowing before I got into anything too long. This is my first time writing with Dan and Phil so I'm still trying to get used to them as characters.**


	2. Strange Happenings

**Hey! Welcome Back… if you're here that means you suffered through the first chapter and actually enjoyed it so... Thanks! I know at the end of the last chapter I said that I'd update on Fridays, but I think I'm going to be doing Thursdays instead. Sorry for the mixup! Hope you guys enjoy!**

Phil's eyes squinted at his bright surroundings, and for a moment he was yawning happily in bed when the night's events came flooding back to him. The thunderstorm. The blackout. And the strange lightning. A shiver ran down his spine at the thought of it. Phil tried his best to push it out of his mind, he needed something to distract himself. He threw back his duvet and stood up walking to the door, ready to start the day, before he noticed something strange around him.

He could see perfectly fine without his glasses or contacts, at least he didn't think he had any on. With a quick reassuring check, he saw his glasses sitting tidily on his nightstand where he'd put them the night before, he stood there shocked for a moment and then beelined to the bathroom to see if he accidentally slept with his contacts in. Phil unscrewed the cap to the small container and his contacts lay neatly in front of him. He let in a sharp intake of breath and waved a perfectly clear hand in front of his face.

 _How was this even possible?_ He thought to himself. Less than twelve hours ago he was as blind as a bat but now he could see with no assistance required. Unless someone had given him laser eye surgery while he was sleeping, there was no way this was in the realm of possibility. It was amazing being able to see the same way almost everyone around could, but he couldn't even fathom how this could be real.

Phil shook his head; he couldn't get one clear thought through without another one ripping through his mind. He thought he should take a shower in order to calm down and allow himself the ability to think rationally.

He peeled off his shirt and shorts and reached out a hand to turn on the water. But before his hand touched the nozzle the spout burst to life in front of him! Phil jumped back and yelped in surprise. He held his hand in front of him. _That couldn't have been me._ He thought. But somehow he knew that he was lying to himself. He nervously ran a hand through his hair and then awkwardly held his hand out to the running water and it suddenly cut off. He held a hand up in front of his face as to examine it more closely, it still looked like it always had before, but just like with his eyes he knew that something impossible had changed him.

There was no denying himself now, he knew that he was doing this. He had … powers? It was just too crazy! The more he thought about it the more freaked out that he became, what was happening to him? He desperately wanted to take his shower and calm down even more so now.

Phil turned on the water (the normal way this time) and jumped in the shower letting the hot and steamy water run over his stress-filled body, he needed time to think, especially before he faced Dan.

Dan.

 _Oh god, I can't tell him, he'll think I'm a freak! He wouldn't be able to live around me when I have powers that I barely know how to control! No, I can't tell him. Not yet, at least._ He decided to himself. _I'll just have to keep it a secret._

* * *

Dan woke up late, as usual. He was up until the wee hours of the night, running what happened through his head over and until finally, he couldn't keep his eyes open. Something about the storm last night didn't seem natural, it just felt … peculiar. Just thinking about the memory sent tingles down his spine.

He rolled out of bed, trying to send the night's events out of his mind. He drew his thoughts to what he would have for breakfast, still disappointed that his favorite cereal was gone. He rounded the corner into the kitchen and opened the cupboard that held all the cereals and surprisingly found an unopened box of his favorite sitting in the front of them all.

Dan was taken aback, that was impossible! He had scoured that cupboard the day before looking for cereal and there was no way he could have missed a perfectly new box sitting right in front of him. Yesterday morning Phil had promised to buy him a new box, but he was with Phil the whole day yesterday and Phil was definitely in no shape to leave the flat last night.

He stepped out into the hallway to ask Phil what had happened, but he heard the shower turn on downstairs, then turn off, and then back on again and stay on. _What could Phil possibly be doing down there_ , Dan thought. He then brushed it off, as he now had other more urgent things on his mind.

Coming back into the kitchen, Dan gingerly lifted a hand towards the box, and poured himself a bowl. Dan leaned against the kitchen counter as he contentedly munched on his favorite cereal, his mind began to wander. It almost seemed like too much of a coincidence... What if he had… NO! That was not possible. He thought, Don't even go there. But Dan couldn't help but think that he had something to do with it.

He was thinking about his cereal when he suddenly found it sitting in his cupboard waiting for him, that had to be something. Glancing around him, he made sure that Phil hadn't returned from his shower, if he was going to try this he didn't want to look crazy in front of him. He had to test out his delusional theory, just to be sure that it wasn't a fluke. Either that or he was just psycho.

Dan looked at the empty countertop in front of him and pictured the first thing that came to his mind, a pencil. He focused hard on the pencil, never taking his eyes off the bar. He was finally about to give up and conclude that he was crazy, when an unnatural haze covered a small portion of the counter and a perfectly sharpened, yellow #2 pencil materialized into existence. It was as if someone had pulled the exact picture Dan was imagining and put it on the counter.

Dan dropped his bowl of cereal in shock and it shattered sending it and the contents all over the floor, he hadn't truly believed that it would work. He blinked several times to make sure he wasn't just imagining it, and gingerly reached out a finger and poked it. It felt as real as it looked.

 _I. Did. That._ Dan thought in disbelief, breathing heavily. How was that even possible? Before he could try anything again, the shower downstairs turned off which meant that Phil would emerge any second.

This was not something that Dan wanted Phil to find out about, at least not just yet. He wanted to find out more about what he could do or what he was first. He quickly swept up the messy remains of his cereal and bowl into a dustpan and tossed them into the trash. At a last thought, he grabbed the pencil that he had ...created? Then Dan sprinted down the hallway and slammed the bedroom door before Phil could catch a glimpse of him. It was time to see what he could do.

 **Just as I finished this, I realized that there is absolutely no dialogue in this chapter oops... anyyywayys leave a comment and tell me what you think! And thank you guys so much for the reviews that you left on my previous chapter, your kind words and feed back mean so much to me!**


	3. Phil

**Sorry, as the next two chapters might be a bit shorter.**

Phil twisted the nozzle of the shower to stop the flow of water, despite being scrubbed clean he didn't feel any better than he had ten minutes ago. In fact, he probably felt a little bit worse. Being in the shower only gave him time to think and his mind couldn't help but wander. What if he was going crazy? Had he always been able to do these things? Would he be stuck like this forever? And worst of all, what would happen if Dan found out? He felt like taking a note from Dan and lying on the floor to have an existential crisis.

After drying himself off, he reached for the shirt that he had laid out for himself prior to his shower and before he could lay a hand on it, watched it disappear completely into thin air.

 _Oh no! Not again!_ He thought. _I really liked that shirt too!_ Phil heaved a big sigh, just discovering yet another thing that he could do. All it did was add to his tremendous amount of anxiety.

Keeping his damp towel wrapped firmly around his legs, he dashed up the stairs and rounded the corner into the hallway just in time to see Dan's bedroom door slam shut. Thinking nothing of it, as he already had too much on his mind to worry about his flatmate, he headed straight for his own and closed the door softly behind him.

Phil opened the door to his closet and stuck his hand in, reaching for a shirt, all while hoping and praying that it wouldn't disappear from between his fingertips. After successfully getting dressed without any other strange things happening, he sat down on his bed to think through what had happened to him that morning.

First, he had woken up with perfect vision, something that was completely new to him. He reached over and grabbed his glasses from the nightstand and slipped them onto his face. The world around him became distorted and fuzzy, just like everyone he knew described his glasses when they wore them. It was so amazingly strange, how the day before he couldn't see anything without them and now he couldn't see anything with had to mean something. Normal people just don't spontaneously get perfect vision... unless he wasn't normal anymore.

Second, any attempt to turn on the shower the normal way had failed because the faucet burst to life before his hand could reach the nozzle. It would have been amazing if it hadn't been completely impossible. The more he thought about it, the easier it seemed to be able to convince himself that he was crazy. The only thing that he could think to do was repeat what had happened so sneaking out to kitchen he swiped a bottle of water from the refrigerator and returned to his room.

Phil untwisted the cap to the bottle and set it on his dresser. He sat on his messy bed, across from the bottle, and held his hand out like he had before. Phil watched in disbelief as the water in the bottle rose up and floated towards him in a perfect sphere. He then imagined the water molding into a cubed shape, and no sooner had the thought crosses his mind, the water obeyed.

Phil made the water into as many things as he could think of: a lion, a llama, and even a computer mouse. He walked around the room and watched as his little blob of water followed him around like a small pet as long as he kept his hand in the same position. He even managed to change the color.

He sat back down on his bed and eased the water back into the bottle, very pleased with himself over what he taught himself to do. After thinking for a moment, he recalled the shirt that he made disappear in the bathroom.

 _Maybe I can get it back_ , he thought.

Focusing intensely , he pulled up an image of what that shirt looked like and wished desperately for it to materialize in front of him. But after trying as hard as he could, nothing happened. It wasn't that hard for him to control water, he sighed disappointedly. It seemed he could only make things disappear, not reappear. It seemed pretty useless to him.

What he had to do was test his theory. He pulled together various items of rubbish that were sitting around his room; wadded up tissues and pieces of paper, empty water bottles and some food wrappers. Laying them out in front of him on his bed. He focused on one of the old food wrappers, reached out to it and watched it quickly fade out of existence.

Phil did this over and over again until he ran out of things that he wanted to make disappear. He sat on his bed contently for a moment when he thought to himself, _Now what?_ He had explored to the extent of what he could do and now there seemed to be something weighing heavily on him.

He caught his reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall. He still looked like the same Phil; black hair, blue eyes, and a little bit too tall. He didn't look any different than he always had. But now, he knew that he was different. Phil smiled to himself knowing that he had a secret, something that made him extra special!

 **As always, leave me a comment and tell me what you think! Also, my PM box is always open if you have a story idea for me or if you need me to proofread something!**

 **As always much love to you all! :)**


	4. Dan

After Dan slammed his bedroom door shut, he leaned his back up against it as he breathed heavily. His eyes were clamped shut as he began to calm his racing heart. He caught a glimpse of Phil as he came up the stairs from his shower, which made his heart start hammering wildly in his chest. He was still very firm on the idea that Phil couldn't know about what was happening to him (whether he actually had new strange abilities or if he was just crazy), Dan didn't want him to worry or share this burden that was weighing down on him. He didn't relax until he heard the sound of Phil's door click shut. Whatever he was about to do, he'd have to do quietly.

The only thing that reassured him of his sanity was the pencil that he clutched in his white knuckled fist. _I did that_ , he reminded himself, _I'm not crazy_.

Dan looked around his bedroom, he'd been in there not but five minutes ago but for some reason now everything looked different to him. His possibilities were literally endless, that sent a shiver of excitement down his spine; but also a ripple of fear.

He moved toward the center of the room and sat cross legged on the floor. The only thing that he could think of in order to calm himself down was to practice and master his new abilities, as much as they scared him this was the only thing that would help. He knew that the more out of control things got, the worse things would eventually become. He conjured his cereal by accident and if he could do that, then he could create something far more dangerous. Another wave of anxiety washed over him, followed by nausea.

Taking a few more breaths, he brought his focus back to the empty space in front of him. First, he had to know just exactly what he could do. He needed something to focus on again, this time he picked something a little more complex, a laptop. It was a stretch but worth a shot.

Dan thought hard on the new model laptop that he saw in an ad. And saw the air in front of him shimmer like before, and a brand new laptop had popped into existence. For a moment, he was in awe, part of him was still convinced that he nothing would happen. He excitedly pressed the power button and waited, only to be disappointed that it didn't work.

He sighed, at least he still made it appear. That was something, at least. But can I make it go away, he thought. Once again, his gaze returned to the laptop sitting in front of him and he tried the opposite of what he'd done before. Dan tried replacing the laptop with air, or just voiding it completely but nothing worked. He pushed it out of the way, defeated.

But the second he pulled his hand away, the laptop came whizzing back into his grasp. Dan looked down, once again astonished. "Well, that's new." He murmured.

He looked around his room for something else to try this new ability on. His gaze landed on a water bottle that was sitting on his nightstand. He stretched out his arm and willed the bottle to come to him and it rocketed across the room into his hand as if there was magnetic tension between his hand and that object. He smirked to himself, very satisfied with figuring out his new trick.

Dan then wondered if he could only make things come to him, or if he could also control how they moved. Placing the bottle in front of him, he held out his hand and watched as the bottle mimicked the movements that his hand was making. He gently lowered it back to the ground with a satisfying plunk.

"That's it," He sighed to himself, "That's what I can do." And honestly it wasn't so bad, that wasn't as dangerous as he had feared. All he needed was practice, and then he could fully know how to control what he could do, and then maybe he could tell Phil. Maybe.

He smiled, _This is okay. I'll work through it. Day by day._ He stood up, using a hand to brace himself on his bed. It was just a fraction of a second that his hand was placed on his duvet, but that small contact was all that was needed. As soon as he lifted his fingers, flames burst to life where they were.

Dan looked on in agonizing helplessness as the flames spread across the bed cover. And then all of a sudden he snapped into action, grabbed one of his extra pillows laying on the floor and smothered the blaze. He swallowed heavily, the thought of spontaneous combustion flickered across his mind but it seemed like to far-fetched of an idea. Then again, having supernatural powers was a pretty far-fetched idea too.

His breath hitched as he realized that that couldn't have been a coincidence, he had done too many strange things today for this not to be his fault. He slowly rose his fist up to eye level and unfurled his fingers and with barely any effort, he watched them catch fire. The flames licked at his fingertips without any pain to go with it.

Dan's anxiety came back and his knees went weak underneath him, and with that he collapsed back onto the floor. This was much more complicated than it had been a few seconds ago. He tried to think of a rational way to work through this but nothing was coming through, it was like there was a wall blocking the thoughts from reaching his brain.

There was no way for him to live normally, if he was capable of this. He was a hazard to everyone around him, especially Phil. At the thought of Phil, Dan's heart sank into his stomach. He'd have to leave; but he'd have to offer some sort of explanation. Tomorrow, he decided, I'll tell him tomorrow. Phil wasn't safe around him. He had to leave, even though it was the last thing he wanted to do, for Phil's safety. Because he cared about him.

Phil wasn't safe around a person like Dan.

He was dangerous. He was a freak. He was a monster.

 **Okay, I'm sorry about this chapter… in general. For some reason it was very hard for me to write.**


	5. Confession

The next morning came too quickly for both of them, as the two were separately dreading the talks to come. Dan woke up before the sun had even risen, his eyes were glued to the ceiling in a one sided staring contest. He felt different than other normal mornings because when he awoke, Dan noticed that he was surrounded by various items from his dreams, and practically trembled in terror at what he could do. He didn't know how to tell Phil about what he could do or the fact that he'd have to leave in order to protect him. One thing he did know was that Phil would never willingly let him leave, Dan would have to find a way to convince him otherwise, a way that showed him in the true monstrous form that he knew himself to be.

He got up as soon his clock ticked to 8:00, padded down the hall to the kitchen, made a cup of coffee and waited silently in the lounge. He started scrolling absentmindedly through different feeds on his phone, but he couldn't even focus on that.

Phil didn't emerge from his room until after ten, he popped his head into the living room to see Dan clutching an empty coffee mug not particularly looking at anything. "Dan?" Phil questioned, "Are you okay?"

Dan just shrugged in response. Phil, now almost positive that something was wrong, crossed the room and sat cross legged on the sofa next to him. Dan looked up at him and took a deep breath, _I guess now is as good a time as ever, it's just best to get it over with_.

Phil's sky blue eyes bore deep into his chocolate brown ones and Dan found himself muttering the words, "I need to tell you something." Phil always had a way of getting people to open up to him, whether they wanted to or not. But this time, Phil was not having it; he shook his head.

"No, me first." Phil said very firmly, Dan was taken aback, as he was usually more agreeable than this. Phil opened his mouth, trying to force the words out, "I didn't see you at all yesterday-"

"Yes, I know." Dan interrupted, still anxious to get his news out before his courage slipped away.

"It was because something strange was happening." Phil sighed and Dan leaned in closer in order to catch every word that he said, "You're going to think I'm crazy and won't believe it, I'm not even sure if I believe it." Phil paused and took one more deep breath, "I can do these things, things that I'm not supposed to be able to do. Things that nobody should be able to do."

Dan felt his breath hitch and before he could stop them, tears sprang up and spilled over his eyelids. Dan covered up his mouth, trying to choke back a sob. "What's wrong?" Phil asked immediately, keeping his distance from Dan, he was worried that he thought of him as a freak and it was only seconds before Dan kicked him out.

But Dan's answer caught him off guard, "I. I can do it too." He breathed out the words, almost inaudibly but Phil heard the words as if they were a sonic boom in his ear. The dam broke, and tears ran down Phil's cheeks, and soon enough they were locked in an embrace both sobbing into the other's shoulder.

It must have been at least five minutes before either of them moved, when Dan finally pulled away he asked tentatively, "So, you don't want me to leave?"

"Oh, god, no!" Phil rushed out, "I need you here."

Dan let out a breath of relief, "I thought that you'd think I was too dangerous." After a brief pause and creating some distance from Phil, he finished with, "I am dangerous though."

Phil kept a hand latched onto Dan's arm, "No, you're not. You're still that same person as before, just because now you can do different things won't change anything."

Dan took a shaky breath and shook his head, "You have no idea. I'm scared of it. And of myself," the second part just nearly a mumble.

"Well," Phil picked his words carefully, "What exactly can you do?"

Dan sniffled, shifted his weight awkwardly on the couch cushion and adjusted his focus towards the facts. Logic and reason is what he could handle, he ignored the fact that most of what was happening to him defied all logic. "Uh," He didn't quite know how to begin.

"Why don't you just show me instead?" Phil offered. Dan nodded slowly. Three things, he could do three things and when he showed them to Phil he could just check them off and not have to think abut what he was doing. So, as casually as he could, he looked across the room to focus in on a video game controller that was sitting precariously on the TV shelf. He held out his hand and the remote came whizzing across the room straight into his hand. Phil looked at him with an astounded look on his face, "Wow, that's amazing! Is that all?"

Dan shook his head sadly, he held out his hand and made a piece of paper materialize in between the two of them. . "This is the part you should be scared of," Dan whispered. He brushed his index finger against the paper and watched as flames instantly engulfed the paper. Dan grabbed it, not feeling any pain from the heat, and smothered the fire between his palms. "I can't control it," he explained, "I don't want to hurt you."

Phil's curious expression slowly expanded into a sly smile, "This is too perfect."

"What, why?"

Phil stood without any explanation and disappeared briefly into the kitchen and returned with small ball of water bouncing happily along next to him, "I can control water." He stated matter-of-factly. Then Phil held out his hand towards the ashes of the burned paper that was lying on the couch and made it disappear into thin air.

Dan was silent as he threaded the last few moments together, "We're opposites. We balance each other out." He said finally.

Phil nodded along and smiled even bigger, "Which means that we can protect each other!"

Dan thought hard again, "But I have three abilities, what is your third?"

Phil only shrugged.

"Oh," Dan said, once more disappearing into thought, "Well, we'll figure it out, I swear. Don't worry." He didn't want Phil to feel bad, but he wasn't quite sure how he was going to keep his promise. But he'd be damned if he didn't do everything in his power to help Phil.

 **SHAMELESS SELF PROMO: If you're not already go on and follow my Instagram it's ssamisnotonfire. Thanks guys!**


	6. Investigation

**Happy Thanksgiving!**

As the day carried on, the two did everything that they could in order to find Phil's missing ability. But they couldn't ignore the fact that all their other discoveries were an accident. But Dan still had his promise to keep to Phil, and he wasn't one to give up on people.

Phil flopped onto the couch and sighed in defeat, "I'm pretty sure that this is a lost cause. If there was something else that I could do, I'm sure that I'd know it by now."

Dan rubbed his friend's shoulder, "Don't worry we'll figure it out, I'm sure of it."

Phil was silent for a moment before he finally voiced his thoughts, "How are you so okay with this? An hour ago you wouldn't stop shaking and crying. What's changed?"

Dan was a little startled, for some reason that hadn't been the question he was expecting. But it was something for him to think about. It was true, he had been very uncomfortable with the situation not too long ago. He had been thankful for the brief distraction, while attention had shifted to Phil. He took a deep breath and thought for a second about his answer, "I never believed in this type of stuff, Phil. I was always a straight-to-the-facts, and the-world-is-only-what-we-can-see type of guy. I feared supernatural things the most and yet I didn't believe in them. But now, I am one of them. And now and the only thing I fear most is me. And I – I find that strangely comforting."

"So, you fear me as well?" Phil asked quietly.

"Oh god, no!" He rushed out, "You would never do anything to hurt me. And besides, you couldn't really do anything bad like me."

Phil scoffed, "Really? You think that making things disappear into oblivion isn't dangerous?"

Dan didn't have an answer for a long time, "We just need to do more research and be more in control. Then we'll be okay."

"And what do we do about right now? How do we cope in the meantime?" Phil exclaimed, "I just want to keep you safe."

"Me too." Dan breathed. He pulled out his laptop and let his fingers hover over the keyboard. Where would he start? He slowly typed _People with powers_ into the search bar. Hundreds of videos of people claiming to be able to do extraordinary things, mixed with clips from movies loaded onto the page. But he could already tell that not one of them was legitimate. There was something about what happened when he and Phil used their powers, there was a certain aura about it. It was something that he couldn't seem to put into words. And he new plenty about editing videos to make things seem real.

Phil scooted across the couch and pressed up against Dan in order to see what he was researching. He also looked unsatisfied at what was pulled up on the screen. He reached over Dan's lap and typed a different search into the bar. ' _Powers from lightning.'_

"You think it would have been the lightning that did this to us?" Dan questioned.

Phil shrugged, "It seems like the only logical explanation. I don't know about you but I wasn't able to do these things before that storm."

He scoffed in response to Phil's sarcasm. They looked at the computer screen and some articles that looked kind of helpful. Dan clicked on the first link and pulled up an article that contained information about a man claiming to be able to do unearthly things after being struck by lightning.

"London 2012, Thomas Block claims to be able to read people's minds after being struck by lightning outside of his house." Phil read out loud. "That sounds a lot what happened to us. Look up that guy's name, see if there's a way to contact him."

Dan opened a new tab and typed out the man's name. He clicked through a few pages and announced, "The only thing that's coming up for Thomas Block is a missing person's report. Wait a second." He clicked back to the article, for a second, "The report was filed less than a week after this article was posted."

A chill ran down Phil's spine, "This isn't good. Close the tab."

Dan did more than that, he closed the tab, then cleared his browser history more than once for good measure.

"I don't like this at all." Phil said. His roommate nodded in agreement. A strange feeling passed between the two, almost like they knew that they had overstepped their boundaries and dug too deep. "D-do you think whoever took Thomas, will get us too?"

"I don't know," Dan answered honestly, "I think the only thing we can do, is act like everything's normal. We can't let people get suspicious. That'd be the worst thing. But in the meantime, we need to learn how to control what we can do."

"Or at least be able to cover for each other." Phil finished. "Don't worry, I'll have your back and you'll mine."

Dan smiled and replied, "Always."

 **Sorry for the short chapter this week, I promise next week's will be really good and long!**

 **Let me know what you guys think ;)**


	7. Accident

As the day continued on, the two carried out the blissful facade of pretending that everything was normal. After the scare with the missing man, there was no more mention of powers and weird lightning strikes. The pair were sat in their respective browsing positions when Phil's stomach started to rumble. "Are you hungry?" He asked his roommate.

Dan shrugged, "I could eat."

"Do you want to go to that new sushi restaurant downtown?" Phil asked excitedly.

Dan vigorously shook his head, "Can't we just call out for pizza?"

"I'm not in the mood for pizza, why can't we just go out," whined Phil.

"I'm not ready to go out just yet." Dan explained, "You're not afraid of this? What if we accidently lose control and hurt somebody?"

Phil took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts before answering, "I doubt that will happen. We made it through today without any accidents, right? You can make it a few more hours."

Dan reluctantly nodded, "Fine. Just let me get changed first." He stood up and walked down the hall to his bedroom after changing out of his pajamas into his typical black shirt and skinny jeans. He stood at the mirror leaning up against the wall and tried to calm himself down and prepare himself for what was next to come. He was going outside, leaving the safety and privacy of his apartment behind. If he made a mistake, then he was fucked.

 _But that won't happen,_ he told himself.

What Phil said was true, if nothing accidental had happened for the rest of the day, he could make it. Giving himself a final glance over, he exited his room and met Phil at the stairway where he was already waiting.

Phil smiled reassuringly and rubbed his shoulder, "We can do this."

They grabbed their coats, descended the stairs and emerged onto the street, and were immediately met with the brisk winter air that was so cold it made their eyes water. They walked down the street to the underground station.

As the two walked along time being filled with conversation, Dan's anxiety began to shrink. The cold air seemed to curb the urge for his fingers to burst into flames. Phil on the other hand had no problem as they hiked up the street, it seemed that the less that he thought about how he needed to hide his powers, the less tempting it was for them to take over.

As they made their way down the escalator into the station, the air grew warmer and Dan's hands seemed to be radiating heat within his pockets. Dan began to sweat in effort of keeping his hands, well, not on fire. (No pun intended).

Phil looked over at his friend as they walked through the terminals, Dan looked very agitated and upon closer inspection he saw the smallest wisps of smoke coming from where his hands were jammed deep into his pockets. "Um, Dan." Phil hinted, glancing down Dan's hands.

He followed Phil's gaze and murmured, "Oh, shit." Phil grabbed his arm and guided the two of them off to the side, against the wall in the terminal. Phil stood in front of Dan to shield him from prying eyes.

"Take a deep breath. You can handle this." Phil reassured him. Dan did as he was told and the heat gradually subsided. Phil was staring intensively down at Dan and could feel him turn down the warmth.

"I'm okay now," Dan whispered.

Phil smiled proudly at him and they continued on down the terminal corridor. They boarded their train, which was thankfully not too busy and they managed to find two seats together.

Dan watched the people around him, slightly paranoid. But no own even gave him, or Phil for that matter, a second glance. That is, not until they ran into a few of their fans.

They had just gotten off the train at their station when they heard a shriek from far behind them, followed by the the same voice yelling out, "DAN AND PHIL!"

The pair turned around and were greeted with the sight of two very wide eyed girls running at full speed towards them, both looked be be in their late teens and spoke in thick Northern accents. Phil looked genuinely happy to see them but Dan had to plaster a smile onto his face.

"Hi!" Phil said brightly, "What are your names?"

"I'm Haley," said one girl.

"I'm Kayla," said the other.

"OhmygodIcan'tbelievethisishappening!" Haley rushed out in one breath. "Do you mind if we get a picture?"

"No not at all!" Phil said, taking the phone from Haley. Kayla kept her phone clutched in her hand, but stepped next to her friend and Phil. Dan slowly stepped toward group and joined the end of the line. He tentatively put a hand onto Haley's back, as Phil had done with Kayla.

They quickly snapped a picture and as Dan began to pull away, he noticed an unwelcomed familiar tingling sensation in his fingers. Before he could do anything, the back of Haley's coat started smoking and it erupted into flames!

"Dan!" Phil exclaimed. Dan turned around and saw, with horror, the chaos that he had ensued.

The girl screamed at the top of her lungs and her friend was staring at the scene wide eyed. Dan shook off his shock and jumped into action, patting out the fire on Haley's back without feeling any pain. She gasped for breath, as the last flames were finally smothered. He glanced around to make sure that no one else had seen what happened.

"Are you okay?" Dan questioned sympathetically.

She nodded and closed her eyes, then sinking to the floor.

"I'm so sorry," Dan said as innocently as he could muster, "I have no idea what happened."

Dan put a tentative hand on her shoulder but she flinched under his touch and he had to quickly withdraw. They were all silent for a moment, not sure what the next move was.

Kayla, suddenly, grabbed her friend's arm and hauled her up from the ground, "Come on, Haley. We should go and get you looked at," She looked at Dan and Phil, "Thank you guys. See you on the internet," She said with a cold finality.

She turned away from them, with Haley leaning on her shoulder for support. Just before the two girls disappeared into the crowd, Kayla glanced back at Dan and Phil, who were dumbly staring at their backs. Kayla made solid eye contact with Dan, and narrowed her eyes.

A chill ran down Dan's spine.


	8. Discovery

The idea of sushi was quickly scrapped as the two raced back to their house. They kept their heads down, and avoided eye contact as to not run into anyone else that may recognize them.

"That was exactly why I didn't was to leave this apartment!" Dan exclaimed, the moment they walked through the front door. "Oh my god." He began pacing back and forth nervously. His face was growing redder by the second, "Do you think they saw anything strange?"

Phil was about to answer, when Dan interrupted him.

"Oh, that's a stupid question! Of course they saw something. Her coat caught on fire for fuck sake. Shit. Shit. Shit."

Phil latched onto one of his shoulders and kept him in one place, "Dan, you've got to calm down. There's no way for those girls to know that you were responsible, and even if they do think that it was your fault how are they supposed to reach the conclusion that you and I have powers?"

Dan wasn't convinced, "I don't care. They saw. And how long before people get suspicious? How long before I make another mistake?"

Phil opened his mouth to respond but found no sound coming out. He couldn't think of any answers to Dan's questions, he was just as clueless and scared as his roommate was.

"Fine." Dan huffed and he stomped down the hallway and slammed the door to his bedroom so loudly that the neighbors must have heard it.

Phil sighed, he knew that Dan would be able to think more rationally in the morning but for now it was best to give him some distance. I'll check on him later, he thought. Everything will look better in the light of day.

* * *

 _Flashes of light and color whizzed by Phil, making him disoriented and dizzy. The flashes showed a quick burst of a scene but were gone to quickly to see anything. Soon the flashes began to slow down, Phil began to recognize places or people that were passing by. Until finally it settled onto one particular scene._

 _He saw the front door of his and Dan's apartment and police officers were bursting through, flooding into the house! They reached both him and Dan and held their arms behind their backs, while the two of them yelled and struggled against the policemen's grasp. But could not free themselves._

 _Then the scene fades to black._

Phil woke up in a cold sweat and sat upright in his bed. His nightmare kept replaying over and over in his head. It was the same one as last night. He lay back down, checking the clock before he closed his eyes again. 3 AM, it felt like this night was dragging on forever.

While he tried to fall back asleep, he couldn't help but think back to his nightmare. There was something about it, it just felt so vivid and abnormal. He just hoped that he wouldn't have the same torturous dream again.

* * *

Dan awoke from his restless sleep to banging on his door. He didn't have a chance to say 'come in' before Phil burst into the room, looking frantic and distraught. Dan sat up, not bothering to cover his bare chest with his duvet.

"You were right." Phil said wide eyed, he plopped himself down on the end of Dan's bed. He thrust his phone under his nose. There was a video loaded onto it, Dan lifted a quivering finger to press play.

The video began with a shaky camera being jostled around, but muffled voices could be heard in the background. Phil's distinct voice and slight northern accent rang through the speakers. Dan's heart dropped into his stomach.

He watched with utter terror as the events of the night before unfolded in front of him. They took the picture and as the group dispersed, the video caught with clear quality as Dan pulls away and Haley's coat ignites on fire. After the hassle of putting out the fire Dan watched himself put the fire out and as he was apologizing to the girl, the camera circled around to their backs. And there on the back of Haley's coat was a hand shaped burn mark.

The camera focused on the burn for a few seconds and then the video cut out.

He examined the Tumblr post that the video was attached to, it had over two hundred thousand notes! Dan handed the phone back to Phil, feeling sick to his stomach.

Dan reached over to his own phone to find that there were thousands of notifications, tweets, texts, missed calls. You name it, it was on his phone. There was even some from his own family, demanding to know what was going on or if he was okay. Most of his tweets were demanding to know what was going on and to top it all off, the hashtag #DanHowellisafirebender was trending.

"What do we do?" Phil finally said, breaking the silence. "My phone was like that this morning too."

A terrible, sickening thought dawned on Dan, "Maybe we should deactivate all of our accounts. You know, go completely off the grid."

Phil agreed that it might be a good idea, "Sure, but don't you think that's just a little bit drastic?"

His roommate sighed, "Yeah I guess. I just don't know what else to do."

"Why don't we just buy some time? Send out a tweet that says we'll be offline for a while and eventually things will die down. Someone else will do something stupid or unforgettable on the Internet and we'll be totally forgotten." Phil suggested.

Dan nodded in agreement, "Let me get dressed. I'll meet you in the lounge."

* * *

An hour later, the two had crafted a very carefully worded tweet that they would both post at the same time. The tweet read:

 _Hello to our very dedicated audience. Unfortunately, due to recent events and circumstances the two of us around going to be inactive on all of our social media accounts. We are unsure of how long we will be away but we appreciate your patience. Thank you to those who have always supported us. We hope that the world of Dan and Phil can return soon. Goodbye for now internet._

"It looks good." Dan said stiffly, he felt awful about abandoning all of his and Phil's fans. But this seemed to be their only option.

"Okay then, ready. One. Two. Three." On three, they both pressed the post button. And within seconds their feeds began blowing up even worse than they had before. They had expected people to be sad, not suspicious. Most of the replies were demanding to know what they were hiding.

Dan voiced this fears, "I think we just made it much worse."


	9. Jailed

Dan and Phil sat in silence and watched as the internet grew more and more hostile about announcing their hiatus on social media. The had both respectively called their parents, giving them very little information about what was going on but also repeatedly reassuring that they were okay. But their phones never did stop buzzing until they both ran out of battery, neither Dan nor Phil had bothered to plug them in. They were still both in the lounge trying to distract themselves from the problem at hand by watching one of their favorite anime.

"We'll be okay," Dan said, pausing the show, neither of them were focused on it anyways, "The only reason we ever left the house before was to get food and now that I can conjure anything, we can have whatever we want, when we want it."

"But is that really how you want to live?" Phil retorted, "Not being able to leave the house until who knows when."

Dan shrugged, "It's not like we have much of a choice. I just want things to go back to normal, before all of this crap started."

Phil sighed, "Yeah, me too."

For a moment, everything was silent and peaceful. No noise filled the lounge and the streets of London outside found an unheard of instant of quiet. And then that moment ended.

A cacophony of sound erupted from downstairs and dozens of footsteps bounded their way upstairs and burst into the lounge.

"Police officers." They identified themselves, but Dan and Phil knew who they were the moment that they'd spotted their unmistakable black uniforms.

"Hands in the air!" The officer in the front ordered, he had a vicious sneer and a mustache that bristled whenever either Dan or Phil looked at him. He looked back at them as if they were a bug that was about to be squashed.

"What is this about?" Dan demanded.

"Hands in the air." The sneering man repeated, this time more irritably. Dan and Phil hesitantly complied and for a few seconds, nobody moved.

"What are you waiting for? Grab them!" The same man barked out. He was obviously the leader, as none of the other officers would do anything without his approval or disapproval first.

"What is going on?" Dan tried once more. He was struggling under the grasp of an officer, who had pinned his hands behind his back and were clicking handcuffs around his wrists. With a quick glance over to Phil, Dan confirmed that they were doing the same to him. A wave of rage washed over him.

"Are you not Daniel James Howell and Philip Michael Lester?" The leader said, looking at each of them in turn. He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying every second of this interaction.

"We are." Dan stated blatantly.

"Then it is with deep regret that I must say, you two are under arrest." He said, not looking a bit sorry.

"What? On what grounds?" Phil whimpered.

"Everything will be explained when we get to the station. Come with me." He turned to lead the troops back outside, "And, don't make this difficult."

The officers lead them out of the house as Dan and Phil fought against them and struggled to get out of their grasp. Using their full lanky, six foot bodies that dragged their feet and yanked their arms but to no avail. Their grip was just too tight.

On the way out of the house, Dan did a head count and found that there were about twenty officers in their entourage. He shook his head in disbelief, and recounted but again came up with the same number. The only reason to bring this many reinforcements with them, is if they were scared that something would happen and they needed to have backup. They must have seen the video. It was the only explanation.

They needed to find a way to escape, and take out the guards long enough for he and Phil to run away. But first he had to deal with the cuffs that were strapped around their wrists. He looked around, as they walked out of the apartment and onto the street outside, for something that he could use to break the metal links.

Dan stopped looking around when he stupidly realized that the cuffs were made of metal, and he (of course) had powers. He glanced around, all eyes were glued to him and Phil, he'd have to be a subtle as possible. No doubt the officers had prepared for Dan and Phil's arrest, especially because they'd seen Dan's powers over fire in the video.

Dan slowly let down his guard of his fire, and let his powers do what they wanted. The group wasn't outside the apartment building yet, so he tried to use as much heat in the air that he could. He felt his hands grow extremely hot, in turn heating up the metal cuffs to a temperature that a normal human wouldn't be able to withstand. He knew that the metal was close to its melting point, but before he could get there someone caught his arm.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you," an officer sneered in his ear, Dan shivered at the man's close proximity to his neck. He held up a small black gun shaped object, and flipped a switch. Blue electricity danced to life on the end of the object. Dan swallowed hard as the officer waved the Taser in front of his face, he knew he could withstand extreme temperatures but he had no idea how electricity affected him. Even worse, he knew that it would mean instant death for Phil, as water and electricity definitely does not mix.

The officer shoved him forward, finally breaking Dan's concentration and making his hands cool down. They were forced into the back of a police car and drove off in the direction of the police station.

* * *

When they arrived at the station, Dan and Phil were forced into a small holding cell. It was a small room, with white tiled floor and all white walls, save for one that was a one-way mirror. They sat on opposite sides of the room with their backs to the wall and hands still bound behind their backs. They're eyes bounced around the room, trying to focus on anything but the other person sitting across. It felt like hours before either of them said something.

"We shouldn't have gone out for sushi," Dan said coldly.

Phil scoffed and uncharacteristically retorted, "You're actually blaming this on me? I wasn't the one who lost control on front of those girls. It wasn't me who stood frozen, not even checking to make sure they wouldn't save anything!"

Dan didn't respond, what Phil said was true some of this was his fault. He sighed, "It was both of our faults."

Phil reluctantly nodded and went back to staring thoughtfully at nothing. "What's wrong?" Dan asked.

"This sounds crazy, but I knew this was going to happen. I had the same dream for days, police breaking into our house, our struggle and them carrying us out. I saw it, I saw it all." Phil said, sounding slightly pathetic.

"You knew?" Dan said in disbelief, "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I thought it was just a dream. I'm sorry," he said in defense, after a pause he added with his voice growing in volume, "I guess I can see the future and that's why I—"

He was cut short by a shush from Dan, who nudged his head to a camera that was mounted in one of the top corners of the room. A steady blinking of a small red light told them that it was recording.

Without much of a warning, an intercom above their heads crackled to life and a middle-aged woman's voice filled the room, "The doctor is ready to see you now."


	10. Studied

**Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!**

The locked clicked and the metal door into the holding cell screeched open. An officer entered, to escort Dan and Phil down the hallway. They passed by several doors, identical to the one that lead to their room. They followed the officer down a maze of corridors, taking so many lefts and rights that they'd lost count.

Finally, they arrived at their destination, a generic white door stood in front of them with a name tag that read _Sandra Brooks PhD._

The officer nudged them through the door, and they came face to face with a very stern looking woman. She seemed to be in her mid-forties and had the face of a beauty queen that had gone through too many sleepless nights. She was caked with makeup that tried to hide the dark circles under her eyes. When she spoke, a crisp American accent came out, "Daniel. Phillip." The woman said, acknowledging them each in turn. "I am Dr. Brooks."

Dr. Brooks stayed reserved in her greeting and didn't extend a hand for them to shake, but she gestured to two seats in front of her desk. Dan and Phil slowly lowered themselves on them, as it was a little hard to do with handcuffs on.

The office was bare, with nothing hanging on the walls except a degree from a college that neither Dan nor Phil had ever heard of. There were boxes propped in every corner of the room, most of them were still wrapped up with packing tape. It looked like this hadn't been Dr. Brooks' office for very long and she hastily threw the room together before anyone came in.

She looked at the two of them curiously, "I imagine you've guessed why you're both here." She began.

They said nothing, and just stared back at her with stone cold expressions.

"Well," the doctor continued, "You two have really sparked my interest. I imagine that you already know this, but late last night, an anonymous video was uploaded to YouTube that featured a strange event with the two of you." She turned to address Dan, "Mr. Howell, I assume you know the video I'm talking about."

Dan squirmed in his seat and after a moment burst out, "Okay! Yeah, whatever. Maybe it was me in the video, but Phil had nothing to do with this. Let him go!" He lied.

Dr. Brooks smirked, "Funny, I don't think that is entirely true. From what I can understand you two are best friends and live together?"

The pair gave a hesitant nod.

"So, whether or not Mr. Lester shares your, let's call them, abilities is beside the point. He is an accomplice." She leaned in, "Although, I get the feeling he's a bit more involved then you're willing to let on."

Dan let a noise escape that sounded like an unhappy growl and leaned forward in his chair. The angrier he got, the more his fire itched to burst to life in his fingers. Dan could practically see the fear shining in the doctor's eyes if the fire took over his hands. He could burn her and anybody who got in their way to a crisp. He and Phil could escape this nightmare and—

"Mr. Howell," his train of though was cut off by the doctor speaking once again. "I would very much appreciate it if you didn't act upon the thoughts going through your head. You see I have a team of highly trained professionals who are more than happy to tranquilize you at the snap of my fingers. Also, if I recall correctly Mr. Lester seems extremely susceptible electricity, do you really want to take that risk?" She smirked, extremely satisfied with herself.

Dan reclined back, seemingly defeated.

"So, what do you want with us?" Phil huffed, speaking for the first time since entering the office.

Dr. Brooks smiled, this was finally the direct that she originally intended for the conversation to go, "Well, this isn't my first time meeting people with your… condition. I've had the rare opportunity to study people like you, unfortunately most of my subjects have escaped my grasp. My job is to travel to any suspicious areas on the globe and study my findings. My master's degree is in the paranormal sciences."

Dan narrowed his eyes at the woman in front of him, unsure as to why she was telling them her life story when they didn't care in the least.

"Anyways," she continued, ignoring the bored expressions that Dan and Phil wore, "Speaking of studying my findings, it's time to begin. Take them to the examination rooms."

The guard that escorted them into the office, laid a hand on each of boys' shoulders and thrust them to their feet. He led them out of the room and down the hallway, going deeper into the facility then they had been before. Phil tried to keep track of how many lefts and rights they took, but it was impossible for him to keep up.

They stopped walking at a door labeled _Exam Room_ ; the guard produced a security card and swiped it through the lock right above the doorknob. He pushed Dan and Phil into the room and said, "Dr. Brooks will be in here in a moment. In the meantime, don't touch anything." And he was gone.

The room resembled a stereotypical doctor's office, but this time with two cots lining the opposite walls. There was a computer on the counter in the corner with a small logo bouncing around the screen that neither of them recognized. Various medical supplies were sprawled across the countertop in sterile bags, ready to be used.

Dan took the cot on the left side of the room, while Phil took the right. It wasn't long before the doctor barged into the room without knocking. "Let's get started." She said almost too cheerily.

Two helpers followed the doctor in, one was an older man probably in his late fifties and the other was a girl who couldn't have been older than Dan or Phil. The man wore a constant disgusted look on his face whenever he was in arms reach of the two subjects, the young girl just avoided eye contact all together. "These are my assistants Marcus and Clara. You'll forgive them for being uncomfortable, this is all fairly new to them."

She nodded at her two helpers, and they stepped toward Dan and Phil and began their work.

* * *

The next hours were filled with various tests the the doctor and assistants performed on them. Within minutes of the tests, Dr. Brooks had already figured out what power types Dan and Phil both were. After she knew what they could do, they went through demonstration after demonstration and put through countless tests.

When they were returned to their cell, both Dan and Phil were sore and exhausted from being poked and prodded in so many different places. They slumped against the walls and sank to their respective spots on the floor.

After a few minutes of weary silence, Phil whimpered, "What are we going to do, Dan?"

Dan sat up a little straighter, and obtained some confidence that he didn't possess before. He looked over at his best friend across the room, seeing how haggard and hurt Phil looked made rage tingle throughout his body and gave his vision a red tint. "I'm going to get us out, Phil. And we're going to go home."


	11. Escape

**Happy New Year!**

 **I'm really sorry that this is SO late, I've had a lot of stuff going on in my life lately. So my uploading might not be as regular, I promise to get back to it soon! I hope you all enjoy!**

It felt like a long time before the lock clicked and the door to Dan and Phil's cell screeched open. The young girl, who had earlier assisted Dr. Brooks, stepped into the room, balancing two trays on in her arms. Phil recalled her name to be Clara.

The door slammed shut behind her and she carefully placed a tray in front of Phil, and then crossed the room and placed the other in front of Dan. The tray had a plate with unidentifiable sludge on it it that was supposed to represent some kind of food food and a small cup of water. Dan raised an eyebrow as if to say, _Really?_

Clara glanced at the one-way mirror at the front of the room and squatted down in front of Dan to be at eye level with him. "I'm going to get you out of here." She whispered.

Dan looked up at her in disbelief and Phil perked up from the other side of the room, although he didn't move as to look suspicious.

"Under your plate," she continued, gesturing to Dan's tray of glop, "You'll find my keycard. When they shut down tonight for lights out, use the card on the lock on the door and get out as quickly as you can. Don't go back home, they'll find you again and just bring you back here. You'll need to run."

Clara stood up and crossed the room, having taken up too much time already, but before she left Dan quietly called out, "Why are you doing this?"

She smiled warmly, "How could I betray the two men who inspired me to be the person I am? Good luck to you both." And she left without another word.

* * *

It was hours until the time came, and all the lights were shut off. Dan and Phil were still left curled up on the floor of their room, their 'dinners' were hardly touched save for the keycard that was safely stashed away in Dan's pocket.

Phil counted to sixty in his head as many times as he could stand until he finally looked over at Dan, "Are you ready?" he asked impatiently.

His brown haired companion glanced back at him, he was eager to escape but a bolt of fear was holding him back.. Dan glanced over at Phil, who was crouched against the wall in anticipation. He knew that he had to protect him, just like Phil had to protect him. They were so close to each other, calling Phil his best friend seemed like an understatement to Dan. They were so much more than that, they had a connection.

 _I can get us out._ Dan thought confidently. "Let's go." He said out loud this time.

The two stood up and softly walked to the door and held Clara's key card to the fob. The small light turned green and beeped, and the door was miraculously unlocked. Phil had almost been sure that it was a setup.

Dan yanked the door open and peeked back at his and Phil's cell, hopefully it was the last time the two of them would ever see it. Having no more time for reflecting, the two started down the hallway following the red emergency exit signs.

Everything was going smoothly, too smoothly. They looked as inconspicuous as possible for as long as they could, only passing a few people in the endless labyrinth of corridors. But something had to go wrong sooner or later.

It was sooner.

They rounded a corner and came face to face with the guard that acted as their escort. For a second everyone froze, Dan and Phil had a mini staring contest with the guard both sides not sure what to do first. Then as soon everyone had stopped, it was like someone had pressed a play button and the three jumped into action.

"THE PRISONERS!" The guard shouted as loud as he could, "THE PRISONERS ARE ESCAPING!"

Dan and Phil tore past the guard, sprinting down the twisting hallways taking turns at random. It wasn't long after they started running that an alarm started blaring which alerted everyone to the fact that the two of them were breaking out.

Dan became acutely aware of people chasing them. His breathes heaved in and out of him like never before, as exercise wasn't one of his favorite pastimes. They turned one more corner and saw their salvation, an exit. At the end of a long corridor their long awaited exit door sat in front of them.

"DAN!" Phil suddenly shouted in distress.

Dan twisted around to see his friend sprawled on the ground, the men chasing them weren't far behind and he could hear their shoes pounding the tiles as they fought two catch up with them.

"I think I twisted my ankle!" Phil said breathlessly.

"Can you make it?" Dan asked hurriedly.

Phil nodded and managed to pull himself to his feet but after putting a little weight on his ankle, he winced in pain. "I don't think I can walk on it."

Dan's mind raced to find a solution, "Get on my back." He finally demanded.

"Excuse me?"

"Get on my back." Dan repeated, more firmly this time. "I'm going to carry you out."

Phil snapped into action and hopped on one foot to Dan, where he mounted him piggy back style. Dan ran down the corridor, struggling under Phil's added weight.

"Hey!" A shout came from behind them.

Phil swiveled his head to see the guard from earlier racing down the hallway, only a few steps behind him and Dan. Following the guards was a pack of about half a dozen police officers.

"Freeze!" The guard called out again, but this time he raised up a gun. "Freeze or I'll shoot."

Dan stopped dead in his tracks, they were now only steps from the exit. Only a few feet away from their freedom. He turned around so the both of them were facing the pack of opponents. Once again, everyone was frozen. Dan and Phil were hesitant to move, the guard was hesitant to shoot and the officers were eyeing them with suspicion and fear.

"Phil," Dan whispered, Phil still on his back, "Do something."

"What can I do?" Phil replied, but no sooner had the words left his mouth did he realize what Dan meant. The only thing in the way of he and Dan escaping was the fact that the guard had a gun, so the solution was simple: make the gun disappear.

He barely had to focus on making the gun vanish, as he already wanted so passionately for it to happen. And before anybody could stop him, the weapon popped out of existence, the guard looked down at his empty hands in disbelieving anger, while Dan took his chance and turned around sprinted to the exit.

"You little shits!" The guard yelled after them after he escaped his shock.

Dan became vaguely aware of them beginning to to chased again. Finally, they got to the exit door and pushed their way to the outside into the frigid air.

It took a moment for them to gather their bearings, but after a moment it occurred to Dan that they were in a parking lot. They were surrounded by trees on all sides, save for the giant government facility behind them. The only way out was a long dirt road that lead directly into the forest. And across the lot there sat a truck, already running, practically waiting for them.

They didn't have time to ask any questions, so Dan, using the last of his energy, ran across the lot and set Phil down on the passenger side of the car while he got into the driver's seat.

The keys were in the ignition, ready to go. They didn't have time to think about whose car this was, or why it was magically waiting for them. Dan threw the truck into gear and tore off down the dirt path, the sound of alarms and shouting fading into the distance behind them.


	12. On the Run

**I just wanted you all to know that this might be my last upload for a few weeks as my life is about to get really crazy. I hope to get new chapters out as soon as possible! I hope you all enjoy!**

Phil didn't take a proper breath until Dan steered them onto a main road and they blended in with traffic. They didn't have any particular destination, just away from London and the government holding facility.

"Are you okay?" Dan finally asked.

How was Phil supposed to answer that? Of course he wasn't _really_ okay. They'd just broken out of the grasp of a scientist who was going to study them, men had chased them ready to shoot and possibly kill them, and he'd deliberately used his powers in front of someone other than Dan for the first time. "My ankle hurts." Was all he said instead.

"We'll have to get some ice on it later, for now rest it up on the dashboard and try to reduce the swelling. I hope it's not broken." Dan told him, after a small pause, while he waited for Phil to follow his instruction, he continued, "But how are you _really_ doing?"

"I'm scared." Phil replied without hesitation.

"Me too. I don't know what to do next."

"We'll figure it out," Phil glanced down at the digital clock on the dashboard. The bright green numbers displayed 12:37, "We should probably find somewhere to stop for the night pretty soon."

"I don't think that's a good idea. Someone might recognize that this is a stolen car and we'd be turned in again." Dan said. Phil couldn't see his face through the darkness that filled the car but he knew that it was scrunched up deep in concentration. They had literally nothing, no phones, no money no changes of clothes and practically no idea where they were. There wasn't much that they could do.

After a few minutes of driving in silence, Dan pulled the car over onto an empty dead end street and flicked the dome light on. Light flooded inside the car, momentarily blinding them while their eyes adjusted.

"Hey, look at this." Phil said, as he pulled a folded sheet of notebook paper from inside the cup holder. The handwriting looked like it was scrawled on in a hurry.

 _This is only a loaner, so I'm going to want it back. I figure you two couldn't bring anything with you, so hopefully the money under this letter will help get you by for the time being._

 _I wish you both the best of luck for what is to come. –C_

Phil then pulled a small wad of banknotes from the cup holder, he quickly flicked through and counted it, "There's four hundred pounds."

Dan let a small whistle escape from his lips, "Wow. We really owe that girl a lot."

Phil smiled a bit and nodded in agreement. "So, that means technically this car isn't stolen and now we have the money for a night in a motel." He rationalized.

Dan shrugged, "Yeah, I guess so. We can drive until we find a place to stay." He then rifled through the center console and found a map. He spread it out over the dashboard, "I think we're somewhere around," His finger wandered around the page, "here."

"Well, if we want to get as far as we can from London, we'll have to continue north on this road," Phil traced a main highway with his finger.

"Okay," Dan finalized, happy that they now at least had a plan, if even just for the night.

* * *

After pulling out onto the main road, the pair drove for a few more hours, trying to put as much distance as possible between them and the government base as possible. Finally, when Dan's eyes could barely stay open, he pulled the car into the parking lot of a small motel.

Dan hopped out of the car and then rushed around to the passenger side to help Phil, whose ankle was still sore from spraining it earlier. Phil jumped down from the car, with support on his arm from Dan. He started to limp his way to the door.

"Any better?" Came Dan's belated question.

"A little. I can put some weight on it now."

They entered the lobby and Dan paid for one night in a room (preferably downstairs, he pointed out). The man at the front desk handed them a room key and they hobbled down the outside walkway to the room. After unlocking the door and bursting into the room, the two collapsed onto the sole queen bed that occupied the room.

Dan tore himself away from the bed just long enough for him to go to the bathroom and freshen up. After peeing and washing his hands, he got a good look at his reflection in the mirror. He was grimy from his few days without showering and his hair stuck up in dark greasy curls.

He peeled his clothes off and jumped into the small shower, welcoming the warm water that washed over his dirt encrusted body. After thoroughly washing himself, he stepped out and wrapped a towel around himself. Habitually, he glanced around for his hair dryer and straightening iron. Then, Dan remembered that there was nothing of his here, this was not his home. He sighed, he'd just have to live with the hobbit hair for a while.

He put his clothes back on and Dan emerged from the bathroom to find Phil contentedly snoozing on the bed, his hair was covering the top of his face. Dan gently brushed it away and shook him awake, "Hey, why don't you get showered?"

Phil groaned as he tore himself out of sleep and limped his way into the bathroom. Dan didn't remember his friend coming back into the bedroom or Phil laying down next to him, he'd already fallen into a deep sleep.

* * *

The first thing that they heard the next morning was a heavy pounding on their door. The clock on the night table told them that it was only a few minutes after five in the morning and it still wasn't even light out.

Dan's heart leapt into his throat. _They must have found us. We weren't careful enough._ He thought.

"We need to hide." His companion said and Phil dragged himself and Dan into the bathroom. They listened at the locked bathroom door as the pounding continued at their front door.

"If there are persistent as we think, then they're going to break down the door sooner or later." Dan voiced, "I don't know what to do."

Phil opened his mouth to whisper a reply, but didn't have time as Dan's prediction came true and the sound of a door busting away from its hinges rang through the otherwise silent motel room.

"We know you're in here." A deep voice called from outside the bathroom and someone began to pound on the outside of the door.

Dan and Phil held their breaths and knew that they only had a few precious seconds of freedom left. The intruders stomped over to the bathroom, as it was probably the only place they hadn't yet checked.

The bathroom door, just like the front, then suddenly blew off its hinges. Phil's hand was latched onto Dan's arm and they stared at their intruders. It was a group of young boys and girls, the oldest boy couldn't have been more than thirty and the youngest girl must have been fifteen. None of them looked too friendly.

The oldest boy, who seemed to be leading the group, looked them up and down and menacingly said, "Dan and Phil, you're coming with us."


	13. Author's Note

Hi guys!

I'm really sorry for the inactivity lately, my life's been super busy lately. But good news, everything will be soon winding down in the weeks to come so I will be able to get back to my regular upload schedule.

Thank you all for bearing with me!

Can't wait to get back to doing what I love!

-panicatthetumblr


	14. Tribe

**Hi guys! I'm back! So sorry that this was such a long time coming, I've had some major things happen in my life so my focus shifted slightly. But now I'm and ready to write again. I hope you all enjoy!**

They were horribly outnumbered. As Dan saw it they only had two options: 1) Fight their way out. The fact that they had powers was to a great advantage to them, and they might be able to hold their own for a while. But they would be revealing themselves. 2) Go with them. These people were total strangers to them (Which could be considered a good or bad thing) but they weren't exactly subtle with their entrance, which worried him because they might just be reckless.

So, far the former was looking much more appealing to him.

He was about to let down his guard and let is hands catch flame when a younger boy from the back of the group spoke up, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Even if you could get past all of us, there's nowhere for you to go. We have this place surrounded and your car has been impounded. We want you."

A shiver ran down Phil's spine, they way that this boy spoke made him sound like he was much older than his age.

"What do you want with us?" Phil asked bravely.

The leader smirked at them, "You'll see."

* * *

They weren't lying, the building was surrounded by young people just like the group inside the motel room. For the second time in just a few days, Dan and Phil were cuffed and being lead to an unknown were getting kind of sick of it.

As they were being lead through the parking lot, Dan noticed that there were no running cars waiting for them. One of the members of the group leading them, noticed Dan looking around quizzically. "Our location is a inaccessible by car. We'll have to reach it on foot." He answered Dan before he could even ask the question. It was so strange, everyone seemed to know what they were going to ask before they even had a chance to voice their thoughts.

The group lead them away from the motel and crossed the parking lot, instead of turning right to exit the lot and continue down the side road, they instead were directed left towards the wooded area that sprawled on the backside of the hotel.

Dan looked down at his and Phil's torn jeans and less than desirable walking shoes, he rolled his eyes, this was not going to be fun.

Phil shivered still stuck in his thin t-shirt, for once he envied Dan's powers and how he never seemed to be cold anymore.

The group came to a gradual incline as they continued their trek through the woods, Dan huffed as he hadn't encountered this much exercise since his annual jog that he took around London.

Dan glanced around to try and take a look at his surroundings, the trees grew thicker and closer together as they continued further into the woods. There were still un-melted patches of snow under the shade of the trees the dappled sunlight made it hard for even Dan to stay warm but the group of kids didn't show any signs of being uncomfortable. Phil, on the other hand, couldn't stop quivering from the cold.

More and more people appeared from between the trees and silently joined the group as they hiked, nobody had spoken a word since leaving the parking lot.

"Where are they coming from?" Dan wondered out loud. His question was left unanswered and they returned to uncomfortable silence.

The sun was sinking in the horizon by the time the group slowed down, "We're here," someone from the back announced. Needless to say, both Dan and Phil were very underwhelmed. They spent the entire day hiking through a freezing cold forest to find themselves at an old abandoned warehouse and a tent.

"Are you sure?" Dan said cynically under his breath, luckily the group was too busy disbanding to hear him. Everyone around them busied themselves doing some kind of housekeeping chore. A pair of small girls were looking for clean patches of snow to collect in buckets (probably to be melting down into water later) another group of teenage boys and girls were gathering dry pieces of wood.

"Dan and Phil," a voice caused their heads to turn. They both recognized him as the leader of the group from before, "My name is Aaron. Follow me, please." The first thing that they noticed about Aaron was his eyes, one was strikingly blue and the other was a deep brown, tattoos ran up his neck and probably covered the rest of his unexposed skin, his head was completely buzzed. His whole menacing demeanor made Phil stay more than a step behind him.

Aaron lead them the rest of the way up the small hill and stopped on the concrete slab between the warehouse and tent. The tent looked like one you would see at an outside wedding venue; it was large but there was nothing cheerful about this one.

The warehouse didn't look much better, almost all of the windows were broken and every piece of exposed metal was covered in rust.

"Nice place you've got here." Dan said, once again, under his breath.

If Aaron heard him, he gave no indication that he did. "You two will be sleeping here tonight." He continued, pushing through the white plastic flaps to enter the tent and waft of foul smelling air greeted them as they walked through. Inside, they found rows of thin sleeping bags lying on the concrete ground that lined the walls of the tent. There were some individuals milling around and just looking bored in general. A few people looked up but nobody seemed to give Dan or Phil a second glance.

Aaron walked along a row of sleeping bags until he came to a spot about halfway down, "This is where you'll be staying tonight. Do not wander. Do not explore. If you run, we will catch you. Goodnight." He turned on his heel and began to walk back in the direction they came.

Dan looked down at the lone sleeping bag at his and Phil's feet, and not to mention that there were people sleeping on both sides of them. Dan was very unsatisfied with what he saw, "Um, excuse me, Aaron. There seems to be only one sleeping bag here and I'm not sure if you noticed but there's two of us."

"You'll make do with what we give you." Aaron said sharply over his shoulder, not even bothering to turn back around to them.

After he left, Dan looked around trying to make eye contact with the people around them, but they were all expertly avoiding his line of vision. Across the tent, he spotted a teenage boy curled up in the corner, it was as good an opportunity to get answers as they were going to get. Dan nudged Phil and pointed across the floor, they made their way over tiptoeing over sleeping bags and buckets of stale water.

Approaching the boy, they saw that he was no older than fifteen, his hair was long and shaggy, there was a thin line of sweat broken out over his pale forehead. They knelt down near him, careful not to get too close.

"Hi," Dan said without bothering to introduce the two of them, "Can you tell me how long you've been here?"

He didn't respond.

"We're not going to hurt you; we just want to know why we're all here." Phil tried, a bit more gently this time.

The boy was silent for a few more moments looking up at them through narrowed eyes, "You two are so naïve. They're listening, always listening." He looked around, lowered his voice and continued once more, "They want you because you're different. We're all different."

Dan swallowed and tried to obliviously ask, "Different? How do you mean?"

The boy rolled his eyes and scoffed, "You know exactly what I mean."

Dan stood up and backed away, "No. I don't," He paused, "Thank you for your help."

"What the hell was that about?" Phil asked in a rare burst of profanity. He looked around suspiciously at the people around him, few had picked up their heads in order to eavesdrop in on their conversation, others just smirked to themselves.

Dan shrugged, suddenly aware that any conversation that they had was far from private. "I don't know. It's late, and I'm exhausted though." He kneeled down and slithered into the sleeping bag.

"Where am I going to sleep, though?" Phil whispered.

Dan sighed and moved as far over as he could in order to make room for his friend. Phil wriggled down into the bag next to Dan, "This isn't so bad," He said hopefully.

Dan laughed, "Phil, you and I are both unbelievably long, there is no way we'll be comfortable."

Phil let out a small laugh but it gave way to a cringe as he shivered down in the bag. The plastic of the tent did little to protect them from the harsh cold winds outside.

"Oh, are you cold?" Dan asked. He pulled his hands out from under his head where he was using them as a pillow and let them begin to warm up. He placed them around Phil and started to rub them along his arms and down his back, "Oh my god, Phil! You're freezing, and even I can feel that."

Phil looked at him and smiled, "Much better. Thank you."

Dan kept one of his hands resting on top of Phil's just in case he got too cold again, and Phil snuggled down into the cocoon of warmth that Dan had created for them. Neither of them could remember their eyes closing, but they both found they were comfortable enough that they didn't move all night.


	15. A Better Welcome

A shrill alarm jerked the pair awake. Phil was ripped out of the blissful oblivious sleep he had fallen into, only to find himself back into the upsetting reality that he and Dan got into. He looked down to see his hand locked into Dan's and his companion's eyes fluttered open. Everyone around them busied themselves with zipping up their sleeping bags, they brushed of things that were already clean, and reorganized things that didn't need it.

"What's going on?" Dan wondered out loud, still a little bleary from sleep.

"Just look like you're doing something," The woman next to them hissed, as she brushed the dirt around her sleeping bag into a small neat pile.

No sooner had Dan started zipping up the bag and Phil started lacing and unlacing his shoes, the tarps of the tent were thrown open. Aaron strode in along with a few other men with a similar build and stature, no one dared to look up as they passed by. The people who were still busy looking productive when the men walked by were lucky enough to be handed a paper plate wrapped in cellophane.

As soon as the guards were past, Dan and Phil immediately stopped the mindless tasks that they had set themselves to do. They looked down at the disappointing plate tossed between them, Dan reached out a tentative hand to unwrap it. The lucky people around them had already dug in and started devouring what was on their plate.

Inside the wrapping was half a sandwich and a mini bottle of water, Dan ripped the sandwich in half and handed the bigger end to Phil, who ravenously bit in. The bread was stale and the fake meat left a weird taste in their mouths but they were both so hungry that the pair had barely noticed.

It wasn't long after they finished eating that a guard approached them. "The two of you are being summoned." They were told.

"By whom?" Dan asked defensively.

"The leader of this whole operation," he replied dismissively, "Follow me, he doesn't like to be kept waiting."

As they were being led back up through the rows of people, nobody bothered to hide their jealous and fearful glares. It seemed like they had all been there for ages without any hope of leaving or change in routine but Dan and Phil were being whisked away after only one night.

Phil thought back to what the boy said to them the night before and a shiver ran down his spine, maybe the people here knew something about him and Dan. Maybe they would have been safer if they had stayed in Dr. Brook's lab, here they had no idea what would happen to them.

As the group exited the tent, fresh morning air filled their lungs. Dan took a grateful deep breath, letting the cool air momentarily relax him.

The guard led them across the yard to the abandoned warehouse. Their footsteps crunched in the frozen snow in the empty courtyard. Soon they heard a crowd of footsteps moving quickly to their right. But neither of them could see anything because of the dense foliage blocking their view.

"Our hunting party," The guard explained before they even had a chance to ask him. He pushed through the steel entrance to the warehouse and the hinges squealed in protest. The inside was just as run down as the exterior, the thick putrid smell of mildew hung in the air. There was no furniture in the wide space, save for a folding chair in the opposite corner of the room.

It was hard for Dan to see who the occupant of the chair was, the lighting was very dimmed and the figure had their back turned to them. As they approached, he could see that it was a middle aged man with a receding hair line, a bit of a beer belly and smile lines around his eyes. He stood up, dismissed the guard who was escorting them and shook both of their hands, "Hello!" He said cheerily, the jolly, portly man seemed out of place from his cold and bleak environment. "My name is Thomas Block. I'm the leader of The SAO. I apologize that your welcome was a little less than warm, you'll have to appreciate that we keep our newbies outdoors for the first few nights that they are here. For security purposes."

Phil looked at the man; the name rang through his head. Where had he heard it before? It just sounded all too familiar to him.

Dan thought back to the people in the tent, it looked like they had been there for more than a few days, "It seems that your security works a little too well, considering there is no one else inside your headquarters."

Thomas laughed at what Dan said even though he never intended for it to be a joke, "You'll find that this is just the entrance to our headquarters, the real facility is several stories below us. If you two will follow me please."

Thomas led them to another corner of the warehouse and through a doorway which opened up to a long set of descending stairs. He marched forward without a moment of hesitation with Dan and Phil in tow.

"And what is The SAO?" Dan continued to ask questions.

"The SAO is an organization that I founded to help people such as yourselves to help you unlock your fullest potential. SAO stands for Special Abilities Organization, you'll find here that everyone here is like you, meaning we all have specific skills that we can do. But I have reason to believe that the two of you are extra special." Thomas turned around and winked at both of them.

"That's it!" Phil burst out. "You're Thomas Block, the man we read about in the news article on Dan's computer a few days ago."

"Ah, so you've heard of me." Thomas said while a smile.

"But how did you know how to find us? Or if we were even the people you were looking for? And what do you mean extra special?" Dan continued to fire questions at the leader.

"All of your questions will be answered in due time. But for now," Thomas stopped now that they had reached the bottom of the stairwell and after punching a combination into the keypad on the wall the lock clicked and he pushed open the large steel door that stood in front of them, "I'd like to welcome you to headquarters."

 **Thank you all for being so patient with my inconsistent upload schedule, hopefully now that it is summer I will get back to some sort of regular uploading.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed the latest chapter, feel free to leave a review to tell me what you think!**

 **-panicatthetumblr**


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